NERALLT 2008

Multimedia Narration in the Classroom:

Writing with Digital Storytelling

Nicole Vaget, Professor of French Shaoping Moss, Information Technology ConsultantMount Holyoke College

Table of content

1. Traditional method for teaching advanced seminars in French Studies

2. New approach using text, images, and sound

3. Description of the new method4. Integrating the new method through

collaboration5. Implementing technology step by step 6. Demonstrating student projects7. Conclusion

Traditional Method for Teaching Advanced Seminars in French

Studies• Before the IT age, a typical advanced seminar

in French Studies would consist of class discussions, individual oral exposés, and an occasional slide show

• Students sat around a large table and everyone was invited to participate in the interpretation of the book assigned for the discussion

• Students wrote a term paper at the end of the semester

New Method

• A large screen has replaced the central table• Presentations are done in PowerPoint• There is a Website (DreamWeaver) for course

management• Multimedia narration in iMovie is required as a

term paper• Participation of technology consultants

Why a New Method?

• Most students hand in mediocre papers• Most students have difficulties using the

written media as a source of information, while they are very comfortable with visual material

• Students learn to decode information about historical and cultural context of paintings, and transfer such knowledge to literary texts

• In multimedia narrations students combine their expertise on art, history and literature

Examples of Courses with Multi-Media Narration as Term Papers

Course on history and film• Political Passion and National Predicament in

French history: the collaboration of France and Nazi Germany during the Second World War

Course on art and literature• 17th, 18th, and 19th century French theater.

Molière, Marivaux, and Musset: Interplay of Love, Money and Seduction

A Course on History and Film

Political Passion and National Predicament in French history: a spectacular revolution in 1789, and the startling collaboration of France and Nazi Germany during the Second World War

Films studiedMarcel Ophuls:The sorrow and the Pity” Alain Resnais: Night and Fog Claude Berri: Uranus and Lucie Aubrac Louis Malle: Lacombe Lucien and Au revoir les enfants François Truffaud: The Last Metro Claude Chabrol: A Woman’s affaire

Multi media narration produced by studentsLe marché noir à Paris sous l’OccupationLes affiches de propagande du Régime de PétainDe Gaulle et la Resistance

Syllabus on line:http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/nvaget/370sp05/index.html

Course on Art and Literature

This semester I teach 17th, 18th, and 19th century French theater: Molière, Marivaux, and Musset: an interplay of love, money and seductionSyllabus on line: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/nvaget/331sp08/syllabus.html

Courses on Art and Literature

The multimedia narrations are:• Libertins and Libertinage in 17th and 18th century

France• Marriage in the Ancien Régime• Evolution of Love and Passion from the Baroque

and Rococo period to the Romantic era• The Role of the King's mistresses at Versailles:

Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV, Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV

• Love and Marriage in Beaumarchais' plays “The Barber of Seville” and the "Marriage of Figaro”

• Baroque, the Age of Illusion: Molière, Versailles and the Catholic church

History of the New Approach

• IMovie is on all Mac computers for everyone to use

• I took a workshop at the Digital Media Center in Middlebury in 2004, and created a project on Haiti

• I approached Shaoping Moss, technology liaison for the Foreign langues, and we worked on integrating multimedia narration into the course curriculum starting in 2005

• LITS supported the project, providing a technology mentor for the students

Description of the New Approach

Students have to do the following tasks:1. Choose a topic2. Research background information3. Write the essay4. Edit the essay for iMovie5. Record the essay as a sound file6. Select and prepare images in Photoshop7. Research musical documentation8. Combine all media (text, images, and sound) to

produce a digital narration9. Customize the iMovie narration in iDVD 10. Burn the final project on a DVD

Role of Faculty, Technologist,Tech Mentor and

Students• The faculty member oversees the project, check

students’ progress, and verify the quality of their work as the content specialist

• The technology consultant, in close collaboration with the faculty, puts in place a strategy to implement technology, runs the workshop, and supervises the tech mentor

• The tech mentor helps run the workshops, and provides individual help to the students by maintaining regular office hours, and accepting individual appointments

• Students are divided in groups of 2 and collaborate equally on the project

Implementing Technology Step by Step

Course syllabus: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/nvaget/331sp08/syllabus.html

• Overview of multimedia narration project • Workshop for images• iMovie workshop• iDVD workshop

Audio and Video Tools

• iMovie• iDVD• Photoshop• Audacity & lame DLL mp3 encode (free)

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

• ella – electonic learning arena https://ella.mtholyoke.edu

Integrating Information Literacy

Function of the librarian:• Where to find images on the Web• How to create a bibliography• How to cite images, audio files, books and

articles• How to use the course management tool

ella - electronic learning arenahttps://ella.mtholyoke.edu

Students’ Comments

• Students enjoy the method and welcome the chance to acquire expertise in technology

• They believe that they have benefited from the use of “combined different learning styles and different ways of thinking”

• Some find it “fun and interesting”, and treasure their first DVD, enthusiastically labeled “a project that can be kept forever”

Students’ Projects

Demo of Multimedia projects: • The Black Market in Paris during German

Occupation (1939-1944)• Propaganda Posters of the Vichy Regime• De gaulle and the Resistance Movement

Pedagogical Benefits to Faculty and Students

• Technology opens the communication channel with students

• Students are placed in the driver’s seat, and deliver professional presentations that empower them

• Multi media awakens students’ interest for a literary world that could be considered as obsolete and irrelevant

• Students produce a better product, that is well researched, well written, and read to the best of their ability

Challenges

• Technology is time consuming for teacher and students

• Technology requires a tight collaboration among students, faculty and technologists

• The technologist maintain a tight schedule of workshops following the development of projects timely acquisition of skills

• Faculty have to monitor the quality of the content at every stage of production (research, composition and style of the written narration, phonetic transcription of the script, etc…)

Questions & Answers

• Would you like to use a multimedia narration in your classroom?

• Do you feel it is requires too much extra effort and time?

Contact Info

Nicole VagetReverend Joseph Paradis Professor of FrenchChair of Romance Languages and Literature

Mount Holyoke CollegeEmail: nvaget@mtholyoke.edu

  Shaoping Moss

Information Technology ConsultantResearch and Instructional Support

Mount Holyoke CollegeEmail: smoss@mtholyoke.edu